Game 22: Tigers and Rangers
By Blake VandeBunte • Apr 23rd, 2008 • Category: 2008 season, Aquilino Lopez, Carlos Guillen, Clay Rapada, Curtis Granderson, Kenny Rogers, Miguel CabreraSome notes from tonight’s game at Comerica Park:
- I don’t mean to start anything or disrespect the Gambler, but Kenny Rogers looks like he could be finished. He hasn’t really been sharp in any of his starts this season and he was bad tonight. He wasn’t helped at all by the defense and it seemed like every ball Texas put the bat on dropped in the outfield somewhere or found a hole in the infield. Kenny had a ton of trouble locating his pitches, walking three in 3.1 innings. He was also wild to the point that he threw a few balls right past Pudge. In three of his five starts this season Kenny hasn’t logged five innings. Short outings like that will kill the bullpen. I don’t think he’s about to go the way of Frank Thomas (and get cut) but it will be interesting to see how his next few starts go.
- Clay Rapada was filthy tonight. He’s looked very good so far this season. He got a huge double play ball for Kenny when he left the game with the bases loaded. Kenny owes him a drink or something.
- I thought Cabrera was going to move to 1st base and Guillen was going to go the 3rd? None of those things happened tonight and Guillen made an error at 1st.
- If being “clutch” actually exists then Carlos Guillen is clutch with the bat. He had a few huge hits tonight that provided huge runs for the Tigers. Here’s hoping he doesn’t get hurt this season.
- Nice seeing Curtis Granderson back at the top of the line up. He looked great gliding all over the outfield tonight, chasing down fly balls. It made me appreciate how good of a fielder he really is.
- I know Rod and Mario talked up big time, but that HR by Cabrera was insanely impressive. He just poked that thing to the opposite field. However, instead of landing in shallow right or being caught it went into the seats for a HR. He is really good.
- This was one of those games where I actually felt sorry for the other team and almost wanted the scoring to stop. Texas has no pitching.
- Aquilino Lopez also continues to impress. Who saw that one coming?
Okay, it is currently 18-6 Tigers. I’m going to assume the Tigers have this one wrapped up. I’ll be at the game tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully Bonderman can throw a bit better than Kenny did today. I also hope that Bonderman gets similar run support. This was one of those games where even though we were down 5-0 I was in no way discouraged. The Tigers finally have that feel to them. 9-13 now, working their way back to respectability.
Tomorrow’s game is at 1:05.
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I felt the same way you did about the early 5-0 deficit. I now have confidence that this team can score a bunch of runs at any time especially against mediocre pitching. I expect them to hit Feldman tomorrow too. I’m not sure if they have enough starting pitching but this is going to be a fun team now that they are hitting.
I am making a prediction that 19 runs is not the most runs the Tigers score this year.